Kalle Rovanpera wants to redeem himself after last year’s retirement and return to his homeland as a prophet. For the moment his plans are going swimmingly, because he finished the first stage of Rally Finland in the lead. The impression is that the two-time world champion has set his sights on a third consecutive victory after those obtained in Poland and Latvia.
The Toyota Gazoo Racing driver concluded the second day of racing with a lead that was not that large over his rivals, but he gave the impression of someone who cannot be reached without making a mistake.
Toyota closes with more smiles, as it placed three of the five cars fielded in this event in the top three positions. Behind Rovanpera are Elfyn Evans and Sébastien Ogier. Both are less than 9 seconds from the leader, but they seem more focused on fighting among themselves than on thinking about catching up with the 24-year-old.
It is no coincidence that Evans and Ogier are enclosed in just 6 tenths of a second. The 8-time world champion made an afternoon recovery that brought him close to the Welshman and tomorrow it will be an open fight for the second place. Evans wants second place to overtake Ott Tanak in the World Championship and get closer to Neuville. Too bad for him that Ogier is also thinking the same thing, because it is now known that he intends to ride the rest of the season if this weekend ends in the best possible way.
Behind the three Toyota GR Yaris Rally1s is the first and only surviving Hyundai i20 N Rally1, that of World Championship leader Thierry Neuville. Rain for much of the day helped him avoid a huge gap, although a mistake on SS3 cost him around 12 precious seconds.
Things certainly went worse for Ott Tanak and Esapekka Lappi. The Estonian retired after an accident on SS3, where he went off the road and, while rolling, hit a tree. Lappi lost control of his i20 on the afternoon lap, also hitting a tree and breaking the right rear suspension.
Tanak and his co-driver Jarveoja were examined after the accident. Both are doing well, but Jarveoja will remain under observation until tomorrow morning. This means that his and Ott’s rally is over with today’s accident. A blow to their title hopes.
Adrien Fourmaux completes the Top 5 with a day of two faces. Great effort in the morning, while in the afternoon things went much better due to a change of set-up that turned the situation around.
Sami Pajari was sixth on his debut with the fourth Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 left in the race and on SS9 he also had the satisfaction of winning the first special stage of his career in the WRC. Takamoto Katsuta, on the other hand, hit a tree, breaking the right rear suspension.
Closing the Rally 1 standings is Gregoire Munster, far from the best as has often happened this year. It is clear that he is not suited to the category today.
Oliver Solberg is in the lead in WRC2. The Norwegian dominated the day with the Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 of the TokSport team, while the battle for second place in the class heated up. Surprisingly – but perhaps not so much – Jari-Matti Latvala is right behind Solberg, although he is about twenty seconds behind. The Toyota team principal, driving a GR Yaris Rally2, is second ahead of the Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 of Robert Virves.
The first stage of Rally Finland ends here. The event will resume tomorrow morning with the 18.94-kilometer Special Stage 11 Vastila 1. The first car will enter the special at 08:05 Italian time.
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